Baseball: Southside Tops Northside, 5-2

The Grizzlies’ coach is ready for the program to take the next step. But, for now, they’ll have to wait at least another month.

The Rebels’ Mark Clark hit a pair of long home runs and Tanner Wiley pitched three solid innings of relief Tuesday as Southside edged Northside, 5-2, at Hunt’s Park.

“He gets pitched around a lot, and we know that, but when make a mistake he’ll make you pay,” Jones said of Clark. “He can square it up.”

Fry said Northside (7-9, 3-3) should have been down just 2-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. Instead, Southside’s Ty Harpenau survived two pick-off attempts and scored the go-ahead run on Aaron Henry’s one-out sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Southside (10-5, 4-3) scored at least once in each of the final four innings to make a winner of Corey Pollard. The right-hander allowed two hits through four innings before giving way to Wiley.

Clark hit a solo homer in the fourth off Grizzlies’ starter Cade Sisemore to make it 1-0. But Northside responded quickly, with Max Shaffer launching an RBI double to left center that tied the game at 1-1.

Northside reliever Grady Coleman had Harpenau picked off first base with one out in the fifth. Stranded in no-man’s land, Harpenau ran toward second and Grizzlies’ first baseman Will Harris’ errant throw to shortstop Grant Hood sailed into left field.

On a second pick-off attempt, Harpenau was stranded off second but ran to third and jarred the ball out of Shaffer’s glove. That allowed Aaron Henry to pit a sacrifice fly that put the Rebels ahead for good.

“We had Ty picked off twice there, and if we play catch it’s a different ballgame,” Fry said. “I don’t know if nerves play a part because it’s such a big game. It boils down to execution.”

Southside padded its lead to 3-1 in the sixth when Pollard doubled to deep center and pinch-runner Jordy Lawrence scored on Drew Person’s sacrifice fly to center.

Clark gave the Rebels some breathing room in his final at-bat, when he hooked a 2-2 fastball just inside the left-field foul pole for his second homer of the game. Clark now has six RBIs in his last two games after getting one in his previous four.

“With Clark, we made a mistake. We didn’t pitch him the way we planned to pitch him,” Fry said. “His last at-bat, we made a mistake, and like I said, that was the difference in the game. They capitalized on our mistakes and we didn’t.”

Harris singled to start the Northside seventh and scored on Wiley’s two-out wild pitch to draw the Grizzlies within three.